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> Planets will start to diverge in culture, language, maybe even biology if we look far enough into the future. This is good! More diversity means more chance
by salmonellaeater 6y ago
> Planets will start to diverge in culture, language, maybe even biology if we look far enough into the future.
This is good! More diversity means more chance of surviving catastrophes, whether they're physical, biological, or memetic. And it makes the world more interesting.
- trhway 6y agothat also meaning that some emerging neo-Cro Magnon will do the other neo-Neanderthals/Denisovans/etc. (plug for Vorkosigan/Cetaganda - among my favorites :)
- akiselev 6y ago> More diversity means more chance of surviving catastrophes, whether they're physical, biological, or memetic. It increases survivability against localized disasters but it remains to be seen whether that holds for the overall survivability of an interstellar species. All it takes is one demagogue on one planet with relativistic projectiles and a generations old grudge to wipe out most if not all of human civilization. Sure it'd take decades/centuries for the weapon to strike and the demagogue and his followers would be dead by then, but that doesn't really change anything for humanity's chances. For bonus points, this demagogue exhausted his planet's resources by building an arsenal of tens of thousands of projectiles - enough to hit every potentially habitable world in colonization range (which is always going to be lower than the reach of aforementioned projectile due to pesky life support) out of spite. Sound familiar?